West Boylston engineer and inventor Phil Steenstra recently shows the improvements he has made to his mini pick-up truck outside one of his major sponsors, Jerry’s Hardware. (Banner photo/MICHAEL KANE)

WEST BOYLSTON 
Not many people can say their 10-year-old pickup truck is a “green vehicle,” or that it may earn its owner the title of Automotive Engineer of the Year. Phil Steenstra can.

Steenstra, a West Boylston resident and former small business owner in town, jokes that he is known around the area as the “official greeter” at Jerry’s Hardware. But, in the automotive world, he’s known as something of a small engine master.

In August 2010, Steenstra set a land speed record in his class – 105.6 miles per hour in a Chevrolet S-10 – at Loring Air Force Base in Maine.

“Most of the participants are usually colleges and universities,” he said. “There’s only a few like myself.”

An engineer by training and trade, he has a degree from WPI and calls his work with engines a “semi-hobby.”

In fact, his constant tweaking and rebuilding of the truck has been a labor of love for 10 years. His land speed record is only his latest accomplishment.

In April, Steenstra was recognized for achieving a 38 percent improvement in fuel mileage over the truck’s factory specifications at the 2012 Toyota Green grand Prix Doris Bovee (named for a renowned environmentalist) Memorial SCCA Road Rallies, held in Walkins Glenn, New York.

“According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), you should get an average of 22 (miles-per-gallon) combined. I got 36,” he said.

In both cases, Steenstra’s multi-step approach to improving engine efficiency seeks to battle the bane of lost efficiency in combustion engines, the loss of the heat. Much of his work had been to the engine parts – sealing spots where heat escapes, tweaking basic designs to hold heat in and such. But, like others, he also is experimenting with hydrogen, which he notes burns four times faster than gasoline, and is much cleaner, but also costs much more to use.

“I don’t see it being a drop-in fuel anytime soon,” he said.

He describes his progress so far as a “snapshot of where we want to be.”

“This is step one of the ladder,” he said. “The next rung is a heat recovery system.”

He’s experimented with using steam from the engine’s coolant to increase engine power and made one adjustment to the engine of a lawnmower that radically improved gas mileage, but so far would not work on a passenger vehicle.

“You could get it to work, but the amount of emissions you would put out would far exceed what is practical,” he said. “We need to find a way to do it in a responsible way.”

For now, his work is unaffiliated with a corporate sponsor or university. But it’s not without help. Jerry’s has been a major sponsor of his participation in contests, he said. Others, including Orciani Welding, have helped too.

“I’ve had a lot of help, by many people, along the way,” he said.

And he has had a brush with the mainstream, too. In the 80s, he sold the intellectual property rights to a coolant to another inventor. That inventor created a cooling system later used by General Motors. Neither inventor made any money off the invention, he said, though he declined to give details, saying years of lawsuits resulted.

One day, he said, some of his ideas may make it to mass production. But he expects to profit little. Historically speaking, he compared garage inventors like himself to famed inventor Nicholas Tesla. Many of Tesla’s ideas in electrical power were accepted and used, but Tesla died in poverty. Steenstra noted Tesla’s ideas worked, but his ability to maneuver through the business world, and to find the funding to do research, was lacking.

“You have to rely on others to make it marketable,” he said.

Such is the life of many inventors, he noted, saying it is too easy for companies to open deals for intellectual rights, then to reverse engineer the products, later pulling out of the deals and using the technology anyway.

He compared the situation to that of the college professor who created the intermittent windshield wipers, and is the basis for the 2008 movie “Flash of Genius.”

“He eventually got his money, but he lost his entire life in the meantime,” Steenstra said.

He also believes in the power of the little guy to create. None other than Alexander Graham Bell was among those trying to make human flight possible when two brothers using bike parts made it happen, he noted.

“He convinced the United States government to give him $3 million in the late 1800s. He assembled the finest team of scientists at the time, and two guys working in their spare time got it to work,” he said. “I don’t know why, but it is part of the creative process you see played out again and again.”

And he expects the same for the car of the future.

“The technology is available, but it probably won’t come from the mainstream manufacturers,” Steenstra said. “It will probably come from the outside.”

He is documenting his work in a book due out from Carbon Press in December. The working title is “Engine Rebuilding for Economy, Power and Durability.”

He has also caught the attention of fellow engineers. Steenstra is a finalist for the Society of Automotive Engineers Engineer of the Year. That honoree is also expected to be announced in December.

And while he waits for December, Steenstra just keeps working and tweaking, trying to get to the next rung on the ladder.